Bewleys of Cumberland

THE BEWLEYS OF CUMBERLAND AND THEIR IRISH AND OTHER DESCENDANTS WITH FULL PEDIGREES OF THE FAMILY FROM 1332 TO THE PRESENT DAY BY SIR EDMUND THOMAS BEWLEY M.A., LL.D. ILLUSTRATED DUBLIN WILLIAM McGEE, 18, NASSAU STREET 1902 ARMS OF THE BEWLEYS OF CUMBERLAND as confirmed to Sir Edmund Thomas Bewley by Ulster King of Arms. “THE expansion and extension of genealogical study is a very remarkable feature of our own times. Men are apparently awaking to the fact there are other families besides those described in the peerage that those families have their records, played their part in history furnished the bone and sinew of national action, and left traces behind them which it behoves their descendants to search out and keep in remembrance. There is nothing in this that need be stigmatised as vain and foolish; it is a very natural instinct, and it appears to be one of the ways in which a general interest in national history may be expected to grow. It is an increasing pursuit both in America and England, and certainly helps, by the promotion of careful investigation, and by the publication of recondite memorials, the more complete adjustment of personal and local details.” STUBBS’ Lectures on Medieval and Modern History. Printed at the Dublin University Press By Ponsonby & Weldrick PREFACE f any apology is needed for the present work, it will be Ifound, I think, in the extract from the late Bishop Stubbs’ Oxford Lectures given on a previous page. From the Pedigrees at the end of the book it will be seen that the descendants of the Bewleys of Cumberland are now scattered through England, Ireland, India, the British Colonies, and the United States of America ; and it is not only natural but right that some effort should be made to collect and preserve the records of their ancestors, and to show the evidence by which descent from them can be traced. The plan of the book may be gathered from the titles of the Chapters in the Table of Contents. As no person appeared to have attempted to explain how the name Beaulieu, or its Latin equivalent Bellus Locus, or its Anglicised form Bewley, was so often associated with monastic or ecclesiastical sites, I made a special study of the subject for the purposes of the present book, and have given my views very fully in an article on “Beaulieu as a placename,” published in Notes and Queries (9th Series), vol. viii., p. 397. A more condensed statement of the conclu- viii PREFACE sions arrived at appears in Chapter I, post, and it is hoped that no reader who has perused it will afterwards fall into the error of supposing that places named Beaulieu or Bewley were called after a family or families that bore the name, or will imagine that there is any connection between the several families who derive their names from distinct places called Beaulieu or Bewley. The origin of the Bewleys of Cumberland is a matter on which one should not dogmatise, and after going through Chapter II. the reader should turn to the closing paragraph of Appendix A, at p. 142. As this book is intended mainly for those who are neither learned in the law nor antiquaries, I have endeavored in Chapter III. to explain various feudal law terms that are necessarily used both in the text of the book and in the Pedigrees. When a member of the Bewley family learns that the name of Thomas de Beaulieu is found in a subsidy roll of 1332, and that an inquisition post mortem was taken in 1434 on the death of William de Beaulieu, it will add greatly to his interest, I think, to understand clearly what these terms really signify ; and an adequate explanation of them would not be afforded by any ordinary dictionary or encyclopaedia. Before examining the Pedigrees at the end of the book, the Introductory matter at pp. 161-3 should be read. It is a matter of observation that the pedigrees in Heralds’ Visitations, and even at times in Peerages and similar works, are often sadly deficient in dates and in materials that would enable a reader to test the accuracy of the state- PREFACE ix ments contained in them. In the Pedigrees in the present work I have endeavoured, as far as practicable, to indicate the principal evidence upon which they are founded ; and the Bewleys of the present day, whose names appear in the Pedigrees, will have but little difficulty in verifying every step in their descent back to the reigns of the Tudors. Prior to that period the evidence is to some extent circumstantial, but it appears nevertheless to be convincing. In respect to the Pedigrees, I have to acknowledge my obligations to the late John Bewley, Esq., of Stanwix, Carlisle, and to John Yarker, Esq., of West Didsbury, Manchester. When, in the beginning of the year 1898, I had for the first time leisure to undertake the investigation of the early history of my family, I had the good fortune to get into communication with Mr. John Bewley of Stanwix, who, it turned out, had been engaged for many years in tracing the pedigrees of the descendants of the Cumberland Bewleys. For this purpose he had collected the entries connected with the Bewley family in the Parish Registers of several of the parishes in Cumberland, in the Registers of the Society of Friends in Cumberland and in Ireland, and in various other Registers; and with these materials he had compiled a Pedigree that included nearly the entire of what is termed Pedigree D in the present volume, and a large portion of Pedigrees E and F. With great kindness he furnished me with a copy of this Pedigree, and on my first visit to Carlisle gave me access to the notes he had made in the course of his researches. In the preparation of the Pedigree above referred to, Mr. x PREFACE John Bewley had been aided by Mr. John Yarker, an ardent and proficient genealogist, who took a special interest in the work from the fact of his being a descendant of the Bewleys of Cumberland ; and in my pedigree work, in connection with the same subject, I have derived much benefit from Mr. Yarker’s suggestions. But notwithstanding the care with which Mr. John Bewley’s Pedigree had been compiled, I considered it desirable to go over the same ground independently. In two visits to Caldbeck I noted the Bewley entries in the Parish Register, and the Lord Bishop of Carlisle having kindly given me permission to examine the transcripts of the parish registers in the Diocesan Registry of Carlisle, I was enabled not only to check the entries in the Caldbeck Parish Register, but also to supply some Bewley entries that were missing, owing to the loss of some pages of the Register. I examined also in Somerset House the original Cumberland Registers of the Society of Friends: and every birth, death, and marriage, appearing by the Pedigrees to be registered in the Irish Registers of the Society of Friends, has been extracted by me from the original records. It is unnecessary to refer to the nature and extent of the researches made by me for the purposes of the present work in the Public Record Office, London the British Museum, and in Cumberland and elsewhere. The question of the Arms of the Bewleys of Cumberland in itself involved a lengthened but most interesting inquiry, and a study of many Heraldic MSS. in the British Museum. The Court Rolls of the Manor of Caldbeck have fur- PREFACE xi nished invaluable information as to the history of the Bewleys of Cumberland, and have brought to light many things that were previously unknown or obscure. For liberty to examine and take extracts from such of these Rolls as are at Lowther, I am extremely grateful to the Earl of Lonsdale, while, in respect to those at Cockermouth Castle, I am similarly indebted to the late Lord Leconfield, and his courteous agent, William J. Clutton, Esq. Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., most kindly allowed me to examine the deeds and other documents at Brayton relating to the sale of the Manor of Hesket by Thomas Bewley, of Hesket Hall, to William Lawson of Isell, in 1630, and also permitted me to have a photograph taken of the portrait of Judith Lawson, for the purpose of one of the illustrations in the present volume. A special acknowledgment should be made of the great service rendered by the Rev. James Wilson, M.A., Vicar of Dalston, in contributing the extracts from the Ministers’ Accounts of the Bishops of Carlisle, incorporated in Appendix E. All the modern dates that are not accompanied in the Pedigrees by any reference to a Register have been authenticated by leading members of the branch of the family to which they relate. The Pedigrees, both in MS. and afterwards in proof, have been circulated in the family, and no pains have been spared to ensure the accuracy of every statement they contain. To those members of the family who have rendered me active help in this matter I return my sincere thanks. xii PREFACE My friend Mr. J. R. Blake, an accomplished heraldic artist, has been good enough to present me with the drawing of which the frontispiece is a reproduction. It was taken from the emblazonment on the Certificate of Arms described at p. 133. My son Mr. Edward Dawson Bewley has given me much useful help in reading the proofs. EDMUND T.

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